Security is an important aspect of network applications. Secure network applications rely on a secure communication session between a client application running on a client device and a server application running on a server device. Many secure network applications use SSH communication sessions between client applications and server applications. An SSH is a cryptographic network protocol conventionally used for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. SSH-based network applications may be used to allow a user to access a remote desktop device as if the user is using the remote desktop device as a local desktop, to transfer documents and files between a user device and a remote server, to remotely execute a server application, which may be different from the server network application, or to access other computing devices via the server network application. The usage of secure network applications may pose a threat to data networks or resources associated with the remote server, or a threat to the local data network or resources associated with the client, or may violate a company policy regarding usage of local or remote computing devices or resources.
Corporations conventionally establish security policies to oversee transfer of documents and files between users of a corporation and an outside network such as the Internet. However, as data packets sent via secure communication sessions using the SSH-based network applications are encrypted, examination and inspection of the secure communication sessions for enforcement of security policies may be difficult or impossible.